What should the workout routine look like if you are 40+??

I am a big proponent of variety in the workout. I end up working out more cross-fit than working out just on muscle building exercises.

Here are some rules of my workout that can be applied to any work out routine for the people who are 40+.

1. Know your body limits - I touched upon it in my last article and would explain more about it later. So based on this rule number 2 below applies.
2. Find out what exercises works best for you body and how your body as whole responds to the exercises. Certain exercises may not be suitable for your anatomy style e.g. exercises that fix your joint movement e.g. barbell bench or smith machine exercises can be very hard for some people and may cause a lot more joint inflammation than other exercises. I mentioned in my last article that we all are not created equal. This includes the body response not just while doing the exercise while later too, e.g. while sleeping and doing your other normal work. It includes figuring out how much recovery time your body needs. Our body always communicate with us, we should pay attention and listen to it. When we age it takes a bit longer recovery time since all physical exertion creates inflammation in the body and you need time to recover from Inflammation after each workout. Inflammation, I believe is the key factor in the aging process and a roadblock in the muscle growth. I will touch on this some other time.
3. Your most workout should comprise 65% Strength and Muscle Building, 20% Agility and Flexibility exercises and 15% Cardio. This percentage is not etched into stone and can be adjusted little but to your needs. I have put it the way it worked for my body and I am able to add/retain muscle along with having good body agility and flexibility.
4. Do limited cardio workouts. But do not discard them totally from your workout. After 40+ plus you need to make or at least retain the muscles. Adding this point just to emphasize point 3 above little bit more. 
5. Include Agility/Flexibility exercises in your workout. Who would like to have a body full of bulky muscles which you can not bend to pick your dropped phone from the floor or not able to walk up the stairs of your 2nd floor office.
6. Adopt healthy food habits. The basic rule to apply here is to stay away from bags and containers. I mean the processed food that come packaged in bags and containers. This discuss needs an article of its own. I will share my foods habits in another article.  
7. Do something. Doing something is better than nothing. Do not give up even if you do not see the results right away. Make working out your religion. Go every day. If bored do something totally different that day. Sometimes the results are so subtle in the beginning but working out starts working at the micro level the second your body is going through the experience of exercising. Don't compare yourself with others at the gym but focus on your personal goals.

I will elaborate the above points in the coming write ups. For now I will conclude by quoting a famous quote (I do not remember who wrote it, but trust every word of it) "Age isn't just a number. Age is wisdom". 

A Deeper Look at Fitness

Let me start by mentioning that I am not a fitness professional and I am not a physical trainer of any sort. I haven't won any body-building competitions. So you must be wondering what are my intentions with writing this blog.
Let me first tell you about myself. I am 46 years old and doing weighting lifting, running, swimming and other cross training exercises for the last 15 years. What has been my goal with my exercise routines? My goals has been fitness and body well-being.
Fitness has a different meaning for different people. For some people it means big muscles which translates into strength, for some it is flexibility/agility, for some it is speed, for some it is stamina. For me it all of the above plus the feeling of well-being. It is my state of mind, how I feel If I am feeling happy in my skin that is what is fitness for me. And that feeling of well-being defines a body and mind that has the ability to survive and reproduce in the environment we live. Reproduce here should not be associated with making children here. Though healthy functioning of the sex system is also part of the overall body fitness.  It, in fact, requires sound and healthy functioning of all of our body systems. So how do we build fitness. I think it starts with the body. When the body goes through physical exercises, the body cells go through the survival process, which our overall body is composed of. Once this survival process is completed, it creates a feeling of well-being in our minds, which comes from section of the brain that keeps record of the survival episode. The human body needs to keep repeating these survival processes in order to keep that state of well-being also repeating itself. The survival process should be time constrained and should give the body and brain the time to absorb all the extra energy created during the survival process.
Enough background of myself and my thoughts on fitness.
So what I am going to do is, I am just going to share my experiences with you. Experience is wisdom and it is our best teacher. My experience many not mean much to you, unless you have shared that experience. But it can give you some insight that you can use while you are building your experiences.
Let me mention one more thing here. Our body's and minds are not created equal. That is the beauty of the Creator. What applies to my body/mind may not apply to your or not to the same extent. So when approaching any workout regimen keep that in mind.

So Always, Always and Always listen to your body. This will help you how much of a weight you should lift, how strenuous your effort should be, what speed you should be running at and what should be the length of your workout. This is the fundamental rule that takes precedence over everything else mentioned here.
I will elaborate on this one little bit more. Here are some of the questions that arise when people after certain age start working out.

• Should I lift heavy weights or light
• What should be the duration of the workout session
• If running what should be the speed, should it be a regular speed, high speed or slow speed
• What should be the intensity of my workout
• Should I do isolation exercises or should I do compound exercises

I will share my views about these questions in my next post. But for now coming back to the main mantra to follow after age 40+ is to listen to your body.
If it does not mean much to you yet, I will explain little about it also what exactly it means.

If you like any piece of my writing or have any feedback please do not forget to leave comments.

Live healthy! Live Happy!!